Freddy’s just sent this to me, and I think it’s a beautiful example of reckless costly generosity and gratitude:
Going back a few weeks, on Easter Sunday while my family and I we were at Gitega, we went to church where our kids from Homes of Hope go for Sunday school. During the service the pastor asked people who had testimonies to share. A lady called Mariane shared her testimony of how God protected her the day she was almost killed in a car crash. People thought she was dead but she was taken to hospital by someone she never knew.
Mariane is extremely poor and she is Mutwa, i.e. a pygmy. She is a widow as she lost her husband during the long war/genocide. She says that she was so touched to see many Hutus and Tutsis from the church coming to visit her in the hospital while she is just a poor Twa, why would others care about her?
Normally the other tribes do not share food or socialize with the Batwa people here in East Africa. Mariane told the church that the chicken you see was the only one she had, and that was the biggest thing in her life she could find to give to the almighty God in order to thank Him for protection.
The dress that she is wearing was given by the church that same Sunday; and that famous chicken was given to her by a Christian organization trying to help poor Batwa people in Burundi. Young people laughed to see a chicken on the pulpit but some of us learnt a very big lesson that day. Do you?